NOTE: Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture is taken from the New American Standard Bible
If you asked me what my favorite Old Testament passage is, I’d have to say Psalm 139:1-18. In this psalm, David speaks intimately to the God he knew from his youth–the God who’d won his heart and knew him even more intimately.
The God Who Knows Us Inside and Out
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.5 You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
I love how these verses assure us of God’s constant, caring watchfulness over us. I am glad we can’t hide anything from him. He knows everything about us–the good, the bad and the ugly–and loves us like crazy anyway. Nothing we can do can make him love us more or less.
The God With an Inescapable Presence 7Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
Even in the worst of possible situations, God is closer than our next breath. Verse ten says that God’s right hand will, “lay hold” of us–as if he says, “Never fear, Beloved. I have you in my grip and I’m not letting go! I am here and I will never forsake you or leave you. Nothing can separate you from my love–not trials or persecution, or hunger or sword or height or depth or demons or angels or even death itself. I am concerned about you. I want to lead and guide and care for you. No place in the universe is too far for me to go with you.”
The God Who Personally Encourages I was preparing to leave for my first missionary training school and I was experiencing some serious anxiety. The school was taking place in New Zealand and I am from Pennsylvania. One day, I felt the Lord impress on me those verses Psalm 139:7-10.
Okay, I thought, “Wings.” Airplanes have wings. “Wings of the morning.” I’ll be traveling from east to west and the sun comes up in the east in the morning and travels west. “And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.” Well, from Pennsylvania, New Zealand is about as “uttermost” as I can get–across the international dateline and at least fifteen time zones.
“Even there your hand will lead me and your right hand will lay hold of me.” Cool! God is with me even there and cares and will lead, protect and provide for me.
I couldn’t take my initial flight out of Philadelphia International due to a problem with the airplane’s restrooms. I missed my connecting flight in Los Angeles and stayed overnight in a hotel at the airline expense. In all the upheaval, I forgot about the verses until a few weeks after my arrival at the school in Matamata, N.Z.
One day, I noticed a poster on the wall of the base’s dining room. On it was a picture of a large airplane rising into the sky. Beneath it was Psalm 139:9-10. I was reminded of God’s faithfulness, even in the most challenging circumstances.
The God Who Overcomes our Darkness With His Light
“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,’12 Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”
For most of my life, I have suffered from periods of intense anxiety and insomnia. In some of those times, I struggled with doubts as well, fearing that the God I’d always treasured might not even be real–or at best, wasn’t doing anything to help me. I felt as if the darkness was overwhelming me and there was no light anywhere.
But these verses helped me understand that the Lord’s love and power are infinitely greater, infinitely more powerful than my blackest doubts, my deepest fears, and my most painful, profound wounds. The darkness cannot overwhelm him–in fact, it flees from him. The darkness cannot hide anything from him and he pushes past it to lift me up and pull me into his glorious arms.
The God Who Is Always Thinking About Us
For sake of space, I won’t include verses 13-18. Go ahead and look it up for yourself. But this last portion gives us another beautiful picture of how, even from the moment of our conception, God loves us and knows us intimately, plans good things for our lives and watches out for us.
Verse 17, however, is worth spotlighting.
“How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!” (New Living Translation)
Some versions of the Bible translate this verse to say the psalmist treasured the many, varied thoughts from God’s mind. Other translations have David saying that he was comforted to know that God thinks about us so constantly and with such affection that we couldn’t possibly keep count of those thoughts. We might as well try to number the grains of sand on the seashore.
I prefer the latter translation. It would stand to reason that if the previous verses speak so eloquently of God’s intimate knowledge of and involvement in our lives, then his thoughts continually focus on us.
In my next blog, I will share with you from Romans 8, my favorite chapter from the New Testament. And a third blog will unpack a second favorite New Testament passage of mine–Revelation 21:1-7.
Until then, remember God is watching over you, knows you intimately and cares about you beyond your wildest dreams!
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